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DIY Upholstered Banquette Seat (part one)

I finally got around to tackling the bench seat in the dining room last week. Read more about the beginning stages here. For such an easy project, I don’t know how it’s taken me so long to check it off the to do list. I’ve been noticing lately how the simplest projects are taking FOREVER. When we first bought our current house (and our last house for that matter) we were knocking out projects left and right. These days.. Notta. It’s weird. It’s like we had another kid or something 😉 Little time suckers.

Before we get into the three-second tutorial (yes, it’s that easy) let’s jump ahead to the good stuff.

Oh, sweet, sweet fabric under my bum. How I love thee.

You’ll notice we only upholstered the seat, not the backrest just yet. Well, let’s be completely honest here. The backrest is upholstered I just haven’t had a chance to photograph it yet. Part two in good time.

Back to bizness. Here’s a quick look at our materials list below. I won’t repeat myself. I think you guys are capable of reading text within an image.

Ready go.

Cut down plywood to fit bench (or have an employee do it in-store if you’d rather). Use a serrated knife to cut down the foam to size (again, they’ll do this at Joann’s if you have your dimensions). Secure the plywood and foam with a little spray adhesive.

Once dry and secure, flip that baby over on top of your quilt batting. Measure and cut down, allowing enough room to wrap around the sides of the foam onto the bottom of the plywood.

Wrap her up and staple the heck out of it.

The corners should be smooth, which is easy to do with the batting. No crazy technique, the batting is very forgiving and flexible, just pull it tight to avoid lumps and wrinkles on the top.

Now, repeat these steps with the fabric. We used this linen in dark gray, which came highly recommend from several others, including Emily Henderson. Oh, heyyy girl. Nope, she has no idea who I am.

I’ve seen others cover the underside with something “pretty” to disguise all the madness going on, but naturally, we took the lazy time effective route and left it as is.

Since I’m sure someone will ask, here’s a closeup of the corners. I guess you could say we used somewhat of a “present wrapping” technique. It’s definitely not perfect, but the corners are tight enough and the lines are straight enough for us.

We plan to attach the cushioned portion to the base of bench seat eventually, but we’re waiting for to finish up the backrest first. I’m thinking some simple velcro strips should do the trick!

It feels so incredibly cozy, even without the back portion completed. And it’s surprisingly soft, due to the 3-inch foam we went with. I love how the fabric is just a tad darker than the gray wall color. As for the lower cabinets, we’re considering leaving them knob-less. I’m thinking any kind of hardware would just be a nuisance to the back of the legs while sitting. We have a few other options in mind though. More on that when we get there.

Oh, and although the room is nearing “completion” (which we all know, doesn’t exist in my books) we haven’t really nailed down a color scheme just yet. All the major pieces are pretty neutral still. Gray walls, white cabinetry, neutral rug, wood table. So we still have big plans in mind to inject some color. I picked up this pillow from Homegoods a few weeks ago, and I’m drooling over the color palette. The greens and blues obviously work well with the rest of our home, but I’m really loving the specific shades in particular. A little lime and navy. I’d love to see more navy in this space! Maybe something along the lines of the guest bath wall color? We’ll see!

I’m shooting to have pics of the finished product, seat and backrest cushions, ready to share with you guys very soon! I can not wait! I’m so in love with this area of the house. Oh, and I guess it’s nice to have somewhere to sit during meals too.

Good job Jessie! Can I ask for your dimensions of the length of your bench? What about table length? Weare planning to do a similar project in our dining area, and the hubs and I are debating on whether the banquette should be longer than the table in order to make it easier to get into. What are your thoughts?

I love it! It looks great! I did have a question that I couldn’t find an answer to in any of the other posts on the dining room. It looks like the drawers surrounding the bench are not standard depth for lower cabinets. Did you hack the base cabinet? How deep are the drawers and does Ikea now sell shallow-depth drawers?

I really love the navy with the hint of lime in the cushions. Will have to see if I can find something here as it would be perfect in our lounge room (neutrals, timber floors, forrest green walls – looks nicer than it sounds LOL).

ok i’m struggling here, i’ve searched your DIY Banquette posts to see how you did the back rest cushion & can’t find anything. can you show me where you posted that part? i love the seat cushions & wish i’d thought of that myself instead of paying someone to do mine. i love mine, but your DIY is so easy. the only piece i’m missing now are cushions for the back rest. i’ve been tempted to use large throw pillows like you did originally, but i love the back rest you covered here. i saw your post on how you built the whole thing but not on how you covered it.

sorry if i’m being thick here but i’ve read both of those posts multiple times & i’m just not finding it. i do see in Part 1 where you mention the back rest is upholstered & you’ll post more on that later, but i’m not finding it. thanks anyway.

Hi there! I found your blog through your feature on 6th Street Design Blog and I’ve been scoping out your posts on your banquette since we have the same kitchen/dining setup and I want to do something similar! Maybe you’ve already found a solution, but what about doing something like this for the knobs under the banquette? http://pinterest.com/pin/150589181263202725/

Thank you for the AWESOME tutorial!! You took the scare factor out of this for me… I have my supplies all ready now. Do I need to wash the bench fabric first? It will be used for a kitchen table banquette that will see a lot of use. TY!

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